Five Night at Freddy's 2 arrives in cinemas in just one month's time, and, with the release date fast approaching, Blumhouse and Universal have been ramping up our excitement by teasing tidbits and petrifying promos.
Based on the video game series of the same name, the 2023 original introduced us to Josh Hutcherson's down-and-out Mike, who reluctantly takes a night watchman job at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, a debilitated family restaurant full of broken-down animatronics. Every night, when darkness falls, bots Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy roam the halls – and it doesn't take long for them to start terrorizing Mike.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 release date
Over two years after the first movie hit screens, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is due to release on December 5, 2025.
After the movie was confirmed in January 2024, filming on the sequel started around Halloween last year, with stars Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard back on set. Filming wrapped in February 2025.
Unfortunately, the December release schedule means fans missed out on watching the sequel during spooky season, just like they did with the original. But if Terrifier 3 has taught us anything, it's that horror movies can still be just as enjoyable during the festive period.
Five Nights at Freddy's 2 trailer
One Five Nights at Freddy's 2 trailer, which you can watch above, was released back in July. At over two minutes long, it was our most substantial look at the sequel yet – and with that, it shared a ton of new story details, as well as some robotic reveals.
We got glimpses at Springtrap, Balloon Boy, Foxy, and the Puppet; the latter of which is especially terrifying. The clip treated us to a bunch of game-related jumpscares, too, with shots of the menacing machines popping out from air vents. What was most interesting, though, is that they appear to be in the real world a lot of the time.
The latest teaser, which you can see below, focuses more on Elizabeth Lail's Vanessa, who was left comatose at the end of the first movie and has since been suffering from terrible nightmares of her murderous father, William Afton (Matthew Lillard). "We're never gonna be able to move forward," Mike tells her, "until you deal with some of the mess he left in your head."
It also introduces Skeet Ulrich's character, who looks to be playing engineer and Afton's former business partner Henry Emily. In the games, Henry's daughter Charlotte was the first to be killed by Afton; an event the new trailer references.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 plot speculation
Thanks to the trailers, we know quite a lot about the plot of Five Nights at Freddy's 2. In one teaser, we learn that there is another location in the Freddy Fazbear-set franchise. This new location and pizzeria are filled (once again) with nightmarish robots for us to meet. However, instead of following a new security guard (like we do in the games), our main trio from the first movie is back in action.
It turns out that this time, Abby's being contacted by some kind of spirits who claim to be the souls of the dead children whom she made friends with in the last film. However, the trailer is packed with scary moments, hinting that the animatronics aren't what you'd call friendly. So, perhaps Abby is being manipulated? It also looks like the robots won't be confined to the pizzeria this time around either, as we saw clips of Springtrap and what looked to be Foxy out and bout in the regular world.
The official Five Nights at Freddy's 2 site has since shared a rather cryptic synopsis, which reads, "One year has passed since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The stories about what transpired there have been twisted into a campy local legend, inspiring the town’s first-ever Fazfest." The description continues: "But when Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, it will set into motion a terrifying series of events, revealing dark secrets about the true origin of Freddy’s, and unleashing a long-forgotten horror hidden away for decades."
We also know for sure that the upcoming movie will be "scarier than the first installment," according to star Josh Hutcherson. He told Esquire: "It’s much bigger, the stakes are higher. There’s more animatronics being brought in, different animatronics being brought in, and the world just opens up in a big way." Similarly, Lillard told Entertainment Tonight that the sequel will be more "action-packed" and "fan-centric" than the first, following some criticism over the first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie.
In terms of how it connects to the games, it looks like the sequel will certainly mimic a lot of what we see in FNAF 2. From the sequel's trailer, we can see that the animatronics resemble the 'toy' style from the second game. When speaking about the sequel's animatronic upgrade, director Emma Tammi told Collider, “I do think the big tease is the animatronics — all the ones they’re expecting, maybe some more — and just chock-full of Easter eggs again... We’ve really done our best to include as many details and things as possible that fans are going to pick out from the game."
Five Nights at Freddy's 2 cast
Although the first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie had a relatively small cast, it looks like the majority will be returning, despite Vanessa being in a coma at the end of the film and her killer dad seemingly murdered by the animatronics. But as Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is thought to either be set in the past or at least include some flashback scenes, it looks like anyone could return.
Thanks to the star being very vocal about the movie, we know that Josh Hutcherson is returning as Mike Schmidt. We also know that Matthew Lillard, who plays the movie’s villain William Afton, will appear in the sequel as the star shared a shot of himself dressed as Springrap captioned "December 2025. I ALWAYS COME BACK."
In an interview with GamesRadar+, Lillard explained how excited he is to return to the franchise. “I'm thrilled to be a part of it. I'm thrilled to give them the next iteration of the story. I think they're gonna love it," said the star. “The reality is that I've been so lovingly embraced by the FNAF community that it's really humbling.”
As for Afton’s daughter Vanessa, social media star Dawko posted a behind-the-scenes image of Afton standing at the top of a staircase watching over Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail). However, many believe that this was a flashback scene, so it is not certain how much we will see of the Afton family in the sequel.
Some new cast members are joining too, including Scream star Skeet Ulrich, meaning that we'll finally see the original Ghostface killers, Stu and Billy (Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich) reunite on screen. While not yet publicly confirmed, it seems pretty obvious that Ulrich is playing Freddy Fazbear's co-founder, Henry Emily.
At New York Comic Con, the Five Nights at Freddy's 2 panel revealed that Megan Fox has joined the franchise and will voice chicken animatronic Toy Chica. Further casting announcements made at NYCC include social media star MatPat as Toy Bonnie and Kellen Goff as Toy Freddy.
As of this moment, the expected cast list for Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is as follows:
- Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt
- Piper Rubio as Abby Schmidt
- Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa
- Matthew Lillard as William Afton
- Skeet Ulrich as Henry Emily
- Wayne Knight
- Mckenna Grace
- Teo Briones
- Megan Fox as Toy Chica
- MatPat as Toy Bonnie
- Kellen Goff as Toy Freddy
For more, check out our list of the best horror movies and the best video game movies.
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